Write Lean, Write Clean

Free your prose of crutch words.

Photo by Total Shape on Unsplash

“Blurby, blurby, blurby,” shouted C. Robert Constable, my high school English teacher. He stared in mock anger for a beat at the guilty student. His eyes magnified into huge googly-eyes by the thick lenses of his glasses. Then, with drama, he broke and cracked a smile. “Yogi,” as we called him in honor of his bear-like persona, was on a mission. Rumors were a-wing. Graduates from our rural…